The New England Manufacturers and Mechanics Institute (est. 1879) flourished in the 1880s in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

. It existed as a rival to the long-established Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association

Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association

The Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association of Boston, Massachusetts, was "formed for the sole purposes of promoting the mechanic arts and extending the practice of benevolence." Founding members included Paul Revere, Benjamin Russell, and others...

. Individuals affiliated with the NEM and M Institute included businessman John F. Wood, James L. Little, John M. Little, Samuel R. Payson, William B. Merrill, and F.W. Griffin.

History

According to the organization's own institutional history, before 1879, "the only industrial exhibitions at Boston were organised under the auspices of an association formed with an ulterior purpose. Nor were these held in permanent structures or with regular intervals. ... At the last exhibition held in a temporary structure -— that of 1878 -— it became evident that a permanent organisation and a building were needed, as over three-fifths of those wishing to exhibit could not be accommodated because of lack of space." In response, the NEM & M Institute incorporated in 1879 "for the purpose of the general improvement of the manufacturing and mechanical interests of New England; to provide means by which worthy and adequate exhibitions of manufactures and other productions can be given, and cognate objects; to obtain and distribute information relative to export business; to create and regulate methods of industrial education; to improve the technical knowledge of the members of the society by libraries, technical lectures and discussions."

New England Fair

The organization built a large exhibition hall in the Back Bay neighborhood (at Huntington Avenue and Rogers Avenue), very close to the MCMA's Mechanics Hall

Mechanics Hall (Boston, Massachusetts)

Mechanics Hall was a building and community institution on Huntington Avenue at West Newton Street, from 1881 to 1959. Commissioned by the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, it was built by the noted architect William Gibbons Preston. The building was located between the Boston and...

. The New England Fair building "covered an area of nearly five acres of land. Its available floor space for exposition purposes exceeded eight acres." Its footprint measured some 213000 square feet (19,788.3 m²), and the grand hall some 130000 square feet (12,077.4 m²). Comparatively, the Mechanics Hall's footprint measured only 90,000 square feet.

Exhibitions were held annually. In 1881, "Governor Long

John Davis Long

John Davis Long was a U.S. political figure. He served as the 32nd Governor of Massachusetts between 1880 and 1883. He later served as the Secretary of the Navy from 1897 to 1902....

 [opened] the exhibition, and the Hon. George B. Loring

George B. Loring

George Bailey Loring was a Member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts.He attended Franklin Academy at Andover, Massachusetts and later briefly taught school. He graduated from Harvard University in 1838 and from the Harvard medical school in 1842. He practiced medicine...

, United States commissioner of agriculture, [delivered] an oration. The governors, the U.S. senators and representatives in congress, and the mayors of all the cities of New England" were invited. "During the winter seasons [the New England Fair building] was utilized as a skating rink, and pedestrian, bicycle, and other contests were held there."

In 1885 the exhibition building was sold to the Metropolitan Horse Railroad, for use as "a storage and repair shop." The building burnt to the ground in June 1886, in a massive fire that killed 8 people.

Further reading

• Edward Atkinson. Address delivered...at the opening of the 2d annual fair of the New England manufacturers' & mechanics' institute, in Boston...1882. Rand, Avery, & co., 1882. Google books.

  Excerpt: "We are engaged in a work by which the antagonisms of race and language of the Old World will be overcome. Democracy is the solvent, and the common school is the crystallizing medium. Presently the people of this land will have ingrafted upon the narrow but versatile intellect of the Yankee, the courage and endurance of the Englishman, without his pig-headedness; the cleanliness of the Dutchman, without his stolidity; the thrift of the French peasant, without his superstition; the artistic sense of the Italian, without his treachery; the wit of the Irishman, without his incapacity to trust his neighbor; the philosophy of the German, without his scepticism; the acquisitiveness of the Jew, without his selfishness; the manual dexterity of the Chinaman, without his idolatry; and the fun and music of the Negro, without his shiftlessness."

• Catalogue of the art department of the New England Manufacturers' and Mechanics' Institute ... Boston, Mass., U.S.A., 1883. Cupples, Upham & Co., 1883. Google books
• Art year book, 1884. New England Institute, 1884. Google books
• Lives lost at a fire; eight bodies taken from the ruins in Boston; destruction of the New England Manufacturers and Mechanics Institute building--Loss $400,000. New York Times, June 22, 1886

External links

• Google news archive. Articles about the Institute